#APM18 Helping Social Work Students develop a Professional Online Presence for Interprofessional Communication
Laurel, Allison & Mary Jacque
On Thursday, November 8, 2018, I will be presenting with Allison Curington and Mary Jacque Carroll, both field directors extraordinaire, at the Field Education Institute at the Council on Social Work Education’s 2018 Annual Program Meeting. As part of the institute, we are facilitating a one hour on how field educators can help social work students develop a professional online presence for interprofessional communication. We will be sharing information and tools that field directors can use to guide curricular development of learning approaches and assessment strategies to achieve practice outcomes around interprofessional communication with digital and social technologies. One of the tools we will be sharing is the second edition of Social Media Toolkit for Social Work Field Educators, which has been revised with content based on the 2018 NASW Code of Ethics.
You can access your free copy of the toolkit here: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2018/11/05/revised-social-media-toolkit/
Also, here are the slides from the presentation:
Finally, here is our session proposal with the learning objectives:
By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of information and tools that field directors can use to guide curricular development of learning approaches and assessment strategies to achieve practice outcomes around interprofessional communication with digital and social technologies.
2. Develop their own professional online presence to support interprofessional communication.
3. Create activities for students in field to increase understanding of the interprofessional and ethical use of social and digital media in social work practice.
One of the four interprofessional competencies, as outlined by Interprofessional Education Collaborate (2016), is interprofessional communication, which focuses on the knowledge, skills and values needed to be responsive and effective when communicating with professionals, communities, and patients and their families. Within this competency, IPEC highlights one of the practice behaviors is being able to choose “communication tools and techniques, including information systems and communication technologies, to facilitate discussions and interactions that enhance team function (p. 13).” While social media are a topic of conversation in many educational and practice arenas, such as nursing and medicine, social work professionals are often not engaged in the social media conversation loop and unclear about the influence of social media in the lives of 21st century employees and organizations. There are several reasons why social work educators and professionals are not having these conversations or engaging with social and digital technologies. These include generational differences, lack of technology resources, lack of training with technology (technological competency), lack of best practice guidelines or organizational/institution policy and ethical concerns (Brady, McLeod, & Young, 2015; Goldkind & Wolf, 2015; Kimball & Kim, 2013).
Field Directors are in a precarious position when it comes to navigating discourse on social and digital media. The traditional role of Field Directors/field office is to liaison between the educational institution and the practice world. While this role has always been tenuous in balancing the competing demands of entities, best practice and slow changing systems have been the foundation for field directors. Most difficult for field educators is the lack of best practice clarity and the rapidly changing context of social and digital media (Sage & Sage, 2015). In addition, field directors are being faced with many ethical challenges presented by student’s use of social media in field. Further, the social work literature and professional social work organizations have been slow to provide updated guidance in the form of best practice and standards (Berzin Singer & Chan, 2015; Hitchcock & Battista, 2012; NASW, 2017).
Field Directors have an opportunity to begin to shape the professional landscape of social and digital media in social work and higher education, especially for interprofessional communication. This workshop will provide both information and tools that field directors can use to guide curricular development of learning approaches and assessment strategies to achieve practice outcomes around interprofessional communication with digital and social technologies. Specifically, the presenters will review the steps for developing a professional online presence, how to work with students and field supervisors on developing their own social media policies, and how to effectively communicate with other professionals via digital and social platforms. Finally, the presenters will share examples of course and field activities that can be implemented with students to increase understanding of the interprofessional and ethical use of social and digital media in social work practice.
References:
Berzin, S. C., Singer, J. B., & Chan, C. (2015). Practice Innovation through Technology in the Digital Age: A Grand Challenge (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative, No. Working Paper No. 12). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare. Retrieved from: http://aaswsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/WP11-with-cover.pdf
Brady, S. R., McLeod, D. A., & Young, J. A. (2015). Developing Ethical Guidelines for Creating Social Media Technology Policy in Social Work Classrooms. Advances in Social Work, 16(1), 43–54.
Goldkind, L., & Wolf, L. (2015). A digital environment approach: Four technologies that will disrupt social work practice. Social Work, 60(1), 85–87.
Hitchcock, L. I., & Battista, A. (2013). Social Media for Professional Practice: Integrating Twitter With Social Work Pedagogy. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 18, 33–45.
Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, DC: Interprofessional Education Collaborative. Retrieved from: https://nebula.wsimg.com/2f68a39520b03336b41038c370497473?AccessKeyId=DC06780E69ED19E2B3A5&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
Kimball, E., & Kim, J. (2013). Virtual Boundaries: Ethical Considerations for Use of Social Media in Social Work. Social Work, 58(2), 185–188.
National Association of Social Workers (2017). Standards for Technology and Social Work Practice. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/naswtechnologystandards.pdf
Sage, M., & Sage, T. (2015). Social media and E-professionalism in child welfare: Policy and practice. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1–17.
How to cite this blog post:
Hitchcock, L.I., Curington, A. M. & Carroll, M.J. (2018, November 8). Helping Social Work Students develop a Professional Online Presence for Interprofessional Communication. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2018/11/06/apm18-helping-social-work-students-develop-a-professional-online-presence-for-interprofessional-communication/
